Obama Gearing Up to Name CMS Admin.

While no formal announcement has been made, all signs are point to Donald Berwick, MD, MPP as President Obama’s selection as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which besides being the focal point of most any HME provider business, also sits at the epicenter of executive’s healthcare reform agenda.

CMS has had no permanent leadership since Administrator Mark McClellan left the agency in late 2006.

As the also president and CEO at the Institute for HealthCare Improvement, as well as a professor in the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, Berwick has built a reputation for trying to steer the healthcare industry toward adopting a value-based approach the healthcare costs, and encouraging doctors, hospitals and other providers to share best practices that improve outcomes while driving down costs.

If selected by Pres. Obama, as anticipated, Dr. Berwick’s nomination would undergo review and confirmation by the Senate. Given the ongoing debate over the recently passed healthcare reform legislation, the confirmation could become a forum for that still hotly contested topic.

In terms of industry response thus far, not much official has been said from any of the associations. A statement from the National Association of Independent Medical Equipment Suppliers said it views this appointment “as good for the DME industry.”